Lika A Circus
by DePai
Summary: The Hogwar Express breaks down on it's way to Beauxbaton's and a group of students decide to ditch the train and find some adventure. They end up being kidnapped by a circus and made to work there.


Introduction:

This is a one-shot fanfic for an RP on an awesome HP site! :) Like the story and wanna join us? Check it out: .

Can't wait to see you there!

The Hogwar Express breaks down on it's way to Beauxbaton's and a group of students decide to ditch the train and find some adventure. They end up being kidnapped by a circus and made to work there.

Enjoy! ;D

Like A Circus

There was a clank, a hiss and a _flump_ after which the train lurched to a halt. They had broken down in the middle of nowhere with a train full of students and their destination – Beauxbaton's Academy – was still hundreds of miles away.

The students gathered outside the train and stood in four groups – according to house. The Headmaster explained everything and told them that, for the time being, they had no choice but to wait for the train to be fixed and make the best of the situation.

Hone was sitting in her compartment alone, bored to the edge of desperation, when she saw Deserae walking by. She jumped up, slid the door open and called after her.

"Hey! Umm, where ya going?" she asked hopefully.

"Oh, well Blaise and Nixon said they'd heard something over that big hill over there – music or something. Anyway, I can't let those two explorers go off alone so I'm going with them," she said, rolling her eyes exasperatedly.

Hone giggled, "Where would they be without you?" she asked, smirking and added, "Do you mind if I tag along? My friends kind of ditched me and I'm just sitting here, bored."

She shrugged and shook her head. They walked out of the train to find the others.

About a half hour later the 11 of them were standing atop a high, grassy hill, looking down.

Since Blaise was going Hestia and Des would, of course, be joining him, the later bringing with her Ron and Hone. Ron was accompanied by Sora. Emma and Gwen tagged along with Nixon and Emma going meant George would be too. Finally, Harry decided he couldn't take sitting by the train and practicing his ninja kicks anymore and came along as well.

The hill overlooked a small town by a set of tracks. There was a train on them next to which stood a small, colourful tent surrounded by carts. That was where the music was coming from as well.

"A circus?" Ron asked, interestedly.

"Sweet! Let's go check it out!" Hone piped up happily.

The circus was a quite abysmal, muggle one. There were few attractions, none of the rides were moving, the clowns were dull, the animals were starving and sick, the acrobats fumbled a cartwheel and the musician pacing around the big top was half-deaf and toothless. Oddly enough, everything seemed clean and in order. A polished ghost circus.

"Sh*t, we could run a better business! This place is deserted!" muttered Gwen, glaring at the gummy trumpet-player.

They walked around the animal cages. George kept them amused with some clever magic tricks which greatly annoyed the performers who couldn't so much as pull a rabbit out of their hats. Then Nixon took out his guitar and played long, complicated and pretty amazing piece which made the trumpeter frown and sit down by the big top next to his instrument.

They came to the big cats. Nixon threw some peanuts at the tigers and yelled, "Move!"

Hone glared at him, "Leave it alone. Can't you see it's tired and starving?"

"All right, why don't we feed it than," he snapped back, wrenched open the cage door, shoved Hone inside and closed it again. Deserae kicked him in the groin and pulled the hatch open.

Hone stood very still at first but then noticed that the tiger wasn't paying her much attention which struck her as odd so she moved slightly closer.

"Oiy! What do you think you're doing?" shouted a creepy man with a tangled, grey hair and wicked eyes. He ran over to the cage and pulled Hone out.

"Mister, your tiger's gonna die soon," Hone said sadly before walking away with the rest of the group.

It was getting dark and they were making their way back towards the hill when several dark figures stepped off the train, knocked out the guys, threw the girls over their shoulders and took them all aboard. They were thrown into an empty coach. Within a few minutes the circus had been taken down and they felt the train start to move.

A man came into the carriage, followed by several tall, muscular figures and turned on a light. He was quite tall, though not as tall as Blaise, with blond hair and brown eyes.

"Well," he said, rubbing his hands together and looking excited, "The deal is, we need more performers. I don't know what freaks you kids are but you're better than the ones I have so we're recruiting you."

Hone put a hand into her pocket to draw her wand and noticed that it was gone. At the same moment she heard several other people whisper things like "I can't find it!" and "Mine's not here either!".

The blond man smirked slyly and drew out several long sticks fixed together with a rubber band from his pocket.

"I don't think you'll be needing these anymore," he said in a low voice. Then he pulled them out two at a time, snapped them in half on his knee and threw them on the floor. Hone saw her own white, aspen one go in the third round. Then he slid open the side of the coach and kicked the broken bits out with his foot.

"Hei," said Sora suddenly, stepping forward, "suppose we don't want to work for your damn circus!" he said angrily, glaring at the man.

"In that case," she man answered him, a shrewd smile appearing on his face, "As you might have noticed, the animals are starving and we don't have enough money to buy them proper food. A little dry perhaps," he said thoughtfully, grabbing Hestia's chin and turning her head sideways, "But it'll do."

Blaise jumped forward with a snarl, pulled Hestia away and wrapped his arms around her.

"Keep your hands off or I swear!"

The tall bodyguard-like men flexed their biceps and cracked their knuckles. Everyone hissed at Blaise to shut the f*ck up simultaneously.

The blond man smiled, "That's what I like to see! People in one mind! Splendid," he clapped his hands together, "Now that we've all agreed you're my new employees, I'll have Caspar and Douglas show you to your coach. Oh and my name is Mr. Smith."

With that he stepped out. Caspar went immediately after him but Douglas stood to the side and indicated that they should follow Caspar. They walked from one carriage to the next until they seemed to be right in the middle of the train.

It was tiny. There was a bunk that took up the entire left side of it. On the right there was a small table attached to the wall with two worn-out stools on either side.

"You have two coaches. This and the next one," grunted Caspar, pointing to the next carriage which was exactly like the first.

They exchanged looks which all said that this was so thoroughly f*cked up. How did they expect them to just stay there and share two carriages when there were 11 of them?

Then Mr. Smith was back again. He stepped inside with his cocky smile in place and started talking again, "Okay, hope you guys settled in nicely. I need to give you your jobs now." He paced in front of them, "Let's start with you," he said, pointing at Blaise. Caspar took hold of his shoulder and pushed him forward forcefully.

Blaise smacked his hand away, "Hands off, moth****cker!" he growled.

"You, my boy, can do the Globe of Death," said Smith, grinning.

Blaise shrugged and sauntered back to the group.

"Hmmm," Smith scratched his chin, scanning them. He stopped, pointed at Deserae and said, "Fire manipulator," he pointed at Gwen, "Trapeze artist," he pointed at Harry, "Snake charmer." He walked up to Ron and Sora and put a hand on either one's shoulder, "Clowns," he said, beaming, "And I think you'll also perform a stunt with animals. Dog's perhaps?"

He frowned then and separated them into two – showing the ones who had already been given an act into the other coach.

"Ah, are you related to the clowns?" he asked George.

"They're not clowns! They have names! Ron and Sora and they're my brothers!" George said fiercely.

"Great, you'll be our magician," Smith said simply, pushing George to the next coach, "And this lovely, young thing can be your assistant," he added, sending Emma after him.

Only Nixon, Hone and Hestia were left now. Smith looked Hestia up and down, thinking hard and pulling faces.

"What to do with you. What to do," he mused, walking in a circle around her, "Maybe the big cats?"

"No way in hell!" Blaise yelled, storming back into the carriage, "Just leave her the f*ck alone! She isn't some chew toy!" He pulled Hestia behind him and glared daggers at Smith.

"Oh right! You were the testy one's sweetheart!" said Smith, smacking himself on the forehead, "All right, tell you what. You can be the juggler and plate spinner. God only knows, we need a better one!"

Hestia frowned at Smith. "I'd rather spin pans," she said, sticking close to Blaise' side.

Smith beamed at her. "Wonderful, my dear! Of course! Pans!" And he gestured for them to move to the next carriage which they did.

Smith looked at Hone now. "Were you the one playing in the tiger's cage?" he asked her, a little smirk on his lips.

"I wasn't _playing_," Hone said defensively, "The tiger was sick, I was just seeing what was wrong."

"You would make an excellent vet," Smith said, nodding at her, "And hmmmm..." he circled her like he had Hestia. He came to a halt behind her and Hone suddenly felt him pull his fingers through her hair.

"What the...?"

"You'll also do the Hair Hang," he decided, coming back to face her, "It hurts at the beginning but you'll get use to it in a few months time."

Hone gulped and hurried away from Smith into the other carriage.

"And lastly you," Smith said, cocking his head to the side as he looked at Nixon, "You caused quite a bit of distress to our musician, Tony, today," he said, frowning slightly, "I'm thinking it's only fair if you take his place."

"Whoa," Nixon said, holding up his hands, "I am not playing a freaking trumpet! Especially not one that old git's touched!"

"Yes, well Tony's not too eager to give you his trumpet. I was more inclined to think you would play that guitar of yours."

Nixon's reaction was much like Blaise' but when he turned to join his friends, Smith put a hand on his shoulder.

"One more thing, son," he said, "You'll also be doing the knife throwing. You'll be practicing with each of those beautiful girls," he pointed to the next carriage, "in turn; they will be strapped to a round board which will spin and you will throw the knives _around_ them. This is just to help influence you to get it perfectly right as I'm sure you wouldn't want to hurt your friends."

This last bit of news earned Smith so many glares that there was a tangible chill in the room. But he just smiled and shoved Nixon into the other coach.

"One last thing," he said, meeting every pair of eyes at least once and saying every word very clearly, "If any of you give me trouble, I will throw you off this train and trust me, slowing down is not an option. You will fall down a rocky hillside where the stones will slowly beat and stab you into nothing more than a bloody mass and no one will ever find your body."

Smith smiled one last time, turned and walked out of the coach.


End file.
